of communication the moment he moved up the
river. In addition to this he was furnished with transportation for
only one division of his army and instructions from General Grant.
There was only one thing that could be done and that was to destroy the
Confederate Army west of the Mississippi; before he could, with safety,
leave New Orleans in the rear, and advance on Port Hudson. Therefore,
concentrating his army at Donaldsonville, we marched across the country
to Burwick's Bay and followed up the Bayou Teche to Alexandra, on the
Red River, to the Mississippi. We advanced upon Port Hudson from the
north.

On the 15th of January, 1863, our regiments at New Orleans were sent up
the river. We went on board a little steamer, called the Laurel Hill at
about eight o'clock in the evening. We arrived in Baton Rouge about one
o'clock on the sixteenth of January and had our tents pitched before
night. We were brigaded with the Thirteenth Connecticut, the
Twenty-sixth Maine and the One Hundred and Fifty-ninth New York, under
Colonel H. W. Birge as brigade commander. These regiments formed the
Third Brigade of the Fourth Division of the Nineteenth Army Corps,
General Grover division commander.

January 25th. We were now in the presence of the enemy and the position
assigned to the Twenty-fifth was on the extreme left in advance and we
were getting our first taste of active service.

January 26th. Our camp was about half a mile from the town, just on the
edge of a dense forest and cypress swamp. Last night I went out on
picket duty for the first time in Baton Rouge. General Payne warned us
that we must look out for the enemy. In the afternoon the officer of
the day came running his horse out where we were on picket and ordered
us to stand by our arms for there was danger of an attack. Toward night
we had a man badly wounded and he was sent to the hospital. During the
night there was a great deal of firing upon the out-posts. We certainly
thought there was going to be an attack and half the camp was up all
night.

January 27th. I came in from picket in the morning. We were relieved by
the Twenty-sixth Maine. We fired off our rifles at a target and started
for camp. We thought sometimes that Louisiana was a very "quare
country," as the Irish man said when he got lost in the woods, and ran
up against an owl in a tree, and thought it was a man calling to him.
The woods were plentifully stocked with game and we could hear most
every